Musical tone modifier



Jan. 24, 1950 w, 11 GLADSTONE 2,495,450

MUSICAL TONE MODIFIER Filed July 25, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR Jan. 24, 1950 w. D. GLADSTONE 2,495,450

MUSICAL TONE MODIFIER Filed July 25, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 v10! lib lla?! 'IIIIIIII INVENTOR A ATTORNEY Patented Jan. 24, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE My invention relates to tone modifiers for drums, and refers particularly to tone modifiers adapted for modifying the tones of percussion musical instruments, such as base drums havin two vibratory heads in the absence of snares.

The necessity of accurate timing of base drums, and similar percussion musical instruments, especially for use in orchestral arrangements, is well recognized.

It is also well known that in instruments of this character, the lower vibratory head should give the same tonal effect as the upper, or batter, head, when the latter is caused to vibrate by the per-- cussion of an instrument thereon.

In stretching a drumhead over the body of a drum and afilxing it thereto by the generally employed means, it is impossible to stretch it so as to obtain an accurate desired tonal effect, and the tonal efiect thus produced is positive and cannot be changed except by some additional devices so constructed as to allow of a number of different tonal eifects in order to produce the correct one as desired for different musical scores.

My invention, therefore, is directed to devices adapted to modify the tonal effect of such percussion instruments to produce a desired tonal effect and to maintain it during the continued use of the instrument.

The effectiveness and utility of the devices of my invention will be evident upon a consideration of my specification and its accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a section through the line l-l of Figure 2 of one form of a device of my invention.

Figure 2 is a section through the line 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a frgamentary outside view of Figure 1.

The particular form of a device of myinvention shown in the accompanying drawings comprises a drum having the side It, the vibratory batter head II and the lower vibratory head l2, said heads being attached to side members by any suitable means.

A revolvable shaft l3 passes through the side [0, and has a handle l4 fixedly attached to its outer end portion, a downwardly extended cordattaching member I5 having the extended stud i6 is fixedly attached to the shaft I 3 and revolves therewith, a downwardly extended member I I is pivotally carried by the stud It or the member l5.

An elongated plate I8 is fixedly attached tothe inner face of the drum side Ill, and has the inwardly extended end portions l9 and 20. A grooved idler 2| is attached to the extended member i 9 and a lower grooved idler 22 is attached to the extended member 20.

An elongated resilient modifier-carrying member 23 is fixedly attached to the extended member IQ and a similar elongated resilient member 24 is attached to the extended member 20. An elongated member 25 is fixedly attached to the member 23, and a similar extended member 26 is fixedly attached to the member 24, these members 25 and 23 being positioned at right angles to the members 23 and 24 respectively.

Each extreme portion of the member 25 carries a fixedly attached tone modifier 21 formed of rubher in a cup-shaped form, and each extreme portion of the member 26 carries a similar tone modifier 28.

A grooved idler 23 is carried by the inner end portion of the member 23 and a similar grooved idler 30 is carried by the inner end portion of the member 24.

An inwardly extended plate 3| is fixedly attached to the member l8. A revolvable shaft 32 passes through an openin in the plate 3|, and carries a fixedly attached cog wheel 33 upon one side of the plate 3|. The other end portion of the shaft 32 carries the fixedly attached member 34 having the two extended radialled arms 35 and 33. A revolvable shaft 31 passes through the side 10 and is supported by brackets 38-38, the inward portion of the shaft 31 carries a Worm gear 39 with the cog wheel 33. It will thus be noted that the revolution of the shaft 31 will rev'olve shaft 32, cog wheel 33 and the member 34.

The outer end portion of the shaft 32 passes through a plate 40' attached to the outer face of the side I 0 and having graduating designations thereon, the extreme outer end of the shaft 32 carrying a fixedly attached finger piece 4| having an extended pointer portion 42.

One end of a cord, or wire, A is fixedly attached to the member passes over the idler 22 and over the idler 29, and the end thereof fixedly attached to the arm 38.

One end of another cord, or wire, B, is fixedly attached to the member l1, passed over the idler 22, over the idler 2|, over the idler 30 and the end thereof fixedly attached to the arm 35.

It will thus be seen that when the device is in the condition shown in the drawings, with the handle M in an upright position, the wire modifiers 21-21 will be firmly pressed against the batter head i l and the modifiers 28-28 will be firmly pressed against the bottom head I 2, due to the It will be noted that this described portion of,

my invention does not allow of any fixed pressure of the tone modifiers upon the drum heads, other than that caused by the resiliency of the members 23 24.

It is frequently highly desirable that a drum should be so constructed that any tonal efiect from heavy muflling, as indicated in the draw-- ings, to no mufliing may be maintained during the use of the device and the devices describedin my specification accomplish this desired result.

If the knob Al is revolved the movement of the member ll and its actuated cord B will pull the tone modifiers in the direction of the arrows inwardly and away from the heads I! and 12. It

will be noted that this movement of the knob 4i,

and consequently the pressure of the-tone modifiers upon the heads, may be stopped at any desired point and that the tone modifiers will remain in such fixedposition, due to the worm gear mechanism.

In operation the heads of a drum arestretched and attached to the side of the drum by any satisfactory manner, during which operation the tone modifiers are completely spaced therefrom. The handle I4 is then turned to release the resiliency of the two members 23 and 2%, thus causing all of the tone modifiers to be pressed strongly upon the inner sides of the heads and thus removing all overtones. The handle #lis then turned slowly thus gradually decreasing the pressure of the tone modifiers upon the heads until the thus allowed overtones produce the desired pitch, the device being of such construction that this desired pitch is maintained during-the use of the drum.

By the word cord, I meanthread, cord, wire, chain or any other suitable means.

By the words tone modifiers, I mean devices which may be cup-shaped, flat or of other physical shape, which may be composed of rubber; felt or other suitable material.

It will thus be seen that my invention presents devices whereby a desired pitch of tone can be obtained in drums and other similar percussion musical instruments, by varying the pressure of the tone modifiers upon the vibratory head of such instruments, and'that the thusdesired tone will be retained during the use of the instrument, and further, that the indicia upon the external dial will indicate exactly how various tone eiiects can be repeated;

I do not limit myself to the particular size, shape, number and arrangement of parts set forth in my specification as these can be varied without going beyond the scope of my invention.

What I claim is:

1. A percussion musical instrument provided with means for masking overtones to any desired extent, said instrument including a shell and a pair of vibratory heads oppositely disposed relative to said shell, said means including a pair of damper elements within said instrument for each of said heads, a cross-member fixedly linking together each pair of damper elements, an elongated resilient member positioned at right angles to and connected at one end to each of said crossmembers, means connecting the other ends of said resilient members to said shell, an external control mounted on said shell, and a linkage from said external, control to both resilient members for simultaneously controlling whether both pairs of damper elements exert pressure upon said vibratory heads or are spaced therefrom, said linkage including idler rollers mounted on said cross members and cords on said rollers connected at one endto said external control, and another external controlmounted on said shell and means linking'saidlast control to the other ends of said cords for controlling both resilient members and the degree of pressure said-damper elements exert upon said'heads.

2. A percussion musical instrument provided with means for masking overtones to any desired extent, said instrument including a shell and a pair of vibratory heads oppositely disposed relative to saidshell, said means also including a pair of rubber damper cups within said instrument f or each of'said heads, a pair of cross-members also within said instrument and rigidly secured respectively to each pair of cups, a resilient member positioned at right angles and fastened near each end to each cross-member at substantially the center thereof, means fastening the other ends of said resilient members to said shell, a member mounted externally of said shell, and cords within said instrument linking said external member to spaced points on both resilient members for simultaneouslycontrolling whether both pairs of damper cups exert pressure upon said vibratory heads or are spaced therefrom, and another member mounted externally of said shell andalso linked to saidresilient members at said spaced points for controlling the degree of pressurewhich said damper cups exert upon said vibratory heads;

WILLIAM D. GLADSTONE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 573,320 Boulanger Dec. 15, 1896 663,853 Boulanger Dec. 18, 1900 725,842 Hennl Apr. 21, 1903 974,647 Du Lany Nov. 1, #910 

